Harness racing suspended at Scioto Downs

Scioto Downs suspended harness racing this week as the racetrack addresses problems with its grandstand.

Races were canceled Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but are expected to resume Friday at the South Side track.

Caesars Entertainment, which owns Scioto Downs and its sister venue, Eldorado Gaming, shut down racing after receiving an engineer’s report raising concerns about the integrity of the grandstand’s roof, said company spokesperson Katie Miller.

“We’re addressing those concerns right away,” Miller said Thursday afternoon. “We canceled the races and are working with the horsemen to be up and ready, hopefully tomorrow.”

The track has been working with the city of Columbus for more than five years to address concerns over the grandstand’s safety, said Tony Celebrezze, assistant director of the city’s Department of Building and Zoning Services.

A 2017 report from the engineering firm Burgess & Niple declared the grandstand’s concrete roof to be “unsound.”

At that time, the racetrack installed netting to capture any debris falling from the roof and closed the grandstand to spectators. But the city allowed part of the grandstand to continue to be used by racing officials to monitor the races.

Celebrezze said the city received a complaint about the grandstand’s safety in July and reached out to the racetrack. He said the city has not seen the new engineer’s report.

“They haven’t shared that with us yet, though we expect them to,” he said. “That report may show additional deterioration, which is why they may have chosen to shut it down.”

The racetrack shut down Tuesday as racers were preparing for the evening’s events, said Renée Mancino, executive director of the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association.

“It was impeccably bad timing,” she said. “It came down right in the middle of preparing to race.”

Mancino said the track is working quickly to find a way to meet the requirements of judging races despite the grandstand’s condition.

“We’re optimistic that we’ll be racing tomorrow night,” she said Thursday. “I’m confident Caesars will do the right thing here to be in compliance.”

Mancino said racers are disappointed, but described the cancellations as a “minor glitch.”

She noted that races are commonly canceled because of weather, and that the three days’ cancellations will mean the loss of about 400 racehorse starts out of 65,000 held each year in Ohio.

Scioto Downs dates to 1959 and became a “racino” when slot machines were added in 2012 and the facility changed its name to Eldorado Gaming Scioto Downs. In 2015, the racino underwent a $10 million expansion, adding a brewpub and other amenities.

The problems with the grandstand come after the facility recently wrapped up its best year.

In the 12 months ending June 30, Eldorado Gaming Scioto Downs reported record revenue of $208.7 million, up considerably from the $139.8 million the previous year, when the casino was shut down for about three months because of COVID.

Last year’s revenue was considerably higher than the previous high of $178.3 million for fiscal year 2019.

jweiker@dispatch.com

Reprinted with permission of The Columbus Dispatch